WRITTEN BY RICH HOSEK PODCAST

The next books in both the Raney/Daye Investigation and From the Files of  Eddie Horne books series will be coming out the first half of 2022. While I'm polishing those up (and getting ready for the 3rd Raney and Daye mystery) I'm devoting some of my daily word count to writing short stories. 

I started my writing career when I was in college, hammering out science fiction stories on my Sears electric typewriter, and later my Commodore 128 computer with a word processor I typed in from the pages of a computer magazine. After a few years and dozens of rejections, I finally sold a story for $100. Well, $25 in advance, the rest due on publication. I don't think it ever got published because I never saw that $75, but that was enough for me to consider giving writing a try and moving out the Hollywood as the closest thing I could find to running away to join the circus.

Eventually, my writing partner, Arnold Rudnick, and I found some modest success in television, won an award for our work on The New Addams Family, and wrote the teleplay that became Near Death, the first Raney/Daye Investigation. Along the way, I had stopped writing short stories, focusing more on television spec scripts and screenplays, and more recently I've taken up novel writing as my primary creative outlet.

But I had a few good stories from back then, and even more in the corners of my mind that have been kicking around for years. So, one of my New Years resolutions is to write a short store a week. I'm using the Reedsy Prompts (https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/author/rich-hosek/) as a starting point for some of them. Not sure if any will win the grand prize of $250--or any award for that matter--they are usually written in one setting and are very much first drafts. But who knows, perhaps one will spark an idea of a more refined story, or even a novel. I do promise you that they are, nonetheless, entertaining stories and I think you'll enjoy them. So, in addition to posting them on the Reedsy site, I'll be recording them as an audio podcast.

The Written By Rich Hosek podcast is available so far on Spotify, Amazon, Audible and Google Podcasts. More platforms to come as I get around to signing up my feed. You can also listed directly on the podcast website (https://writtenbyrichhosek.castos.com/) if you prefer. I hope you'll subscribe, as I'll be making these available for free in hopes you might like them well enough to check out my books.

I sometimes will tune in to an episode of the old CBS Radio Mystery Theater which ran at 10:30pm on my local station when I was a kid. I had been a fan of old time radio, and the stories hosted by E.G. Marshall were always fun to listen to--though I must confess, I rarely was able to stay up all the way to the end. One of the most prolific writers on the series was named Sam Dann (https://www.cbsrmt.com/writer/13-dann-sam.html) who wrote over 300 of the nearly 1400 episodes that were produced. I don't know if it was because his name was so memorable, but it seemed like I heard Mr. Marshall tell us that "Tonight's episode was written especially for the CBS Radio Mystery Theater by Sam Dann," pretty much every night. Regardless, I was and am impressed and inspired that he was able to write so many stories for the program. There are podcast channels devoted to the show, I encourage you to take a listen. 

So, in the tradition of all the writers for CBSRMT, who produced a daily radio mystery drama for eight years, I present my podcast, written especially for the internet by Rich Hosek. Find it on your favorite podcast platform (hit me up on Twitter or Gettr @RichHosek if you don't and I'll get it make sure I get it out there) and subscribe, like and review.

Thanks, and enjoy!

THE DEAD KIDS CLUB - From the Files of Eddie Horne

 My latest novel, The Dead Kids Club, is now available as a paperback on Amazon.com. This is actually the first book I finished when I turned my writing efforts to novels a while back, but it's being published after Near Death, my collaboration with Arnold Rudnick and Loyd Auerbach. I had tried to write various novels over the years, before, during, and after the time I was working in Television, but crafting a novel is a much different exercise from writing a half-hour teleplay. When I did reach the point when I knew it was time to finally take another run at it, the idea for this novel came to me--believe it or not--in a dream. Or rather, a nightmare. The idea actually disturbed me, and made me confront emotions I would never want to experience in real life, but the story was there, I could see it unfolding in my mind, so I decided to put it to paper (or computer screen, as is the case these days) and find out what journey the protagonist would lead me on. I detail in the Author's Note at the end of the book what that journey looked like -- but I won't go into details here as it does contain spoilers.

One thing I can tell you is that I included a character that I had been kicking around for a long time. His name is Eddie Horne, and he was actually part of one of those previous false starts I had taken years earlier. Eddie is an interesting guy to me. He's a crime writer, someone who stalks the courtrooms and the periodical rooms of libraries for that big story that will be on par with Truman Capote's In Cold Blood.

"Who goes to libraries anymore?" you may ask. Well, Eddie is a Luddite. He avoids technology as much as he can. He doesn't own a cell phone or a computer and writes on a manual typewriter. He manages to interface with the modern world with the help of a young woman named Geo (who doesn't appear in The Dead Kids Club, but will debut in another book coming out later this year called The Tenth Ride.) 

I put this book into a category I call "everyman thrillers," stories about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. The characters are not spies or ex-special forces operators, or brilliant detectives. They are regular Joes and Janes who find themselves facing situations any one of us might encounter in our day-to-day lives. If you would like to read other books in this genre, I would point you to the late Rachel Caine's series that starts with Stillhouse Lake. 

I hope you enjoy this tale "From the Files of Eddie Horne," and also check out the popular "A Raney/Daye Investigation" series of which Near Death is the first book. Please also visit me on Facebook @WrittenByRichHosek and follow me on Twitter @RichHosek and sign up for my email list at https://wwww.RichHosek.com.

NEAR DEATH - A Raney/Daye Investigation

 My first published novel, Near Death, was released a few months ago. It is actually a novelization of a screenplay I did many years ago with Arnold Rudnick and Loyd Auerbach called Raney and Daye. We had intended it as a backdoor pilot for a television series about a paranormal investigator/anthropology professor and a former police detective who team up to investigate cases with a paranormal angle. Loyd is a working parapsychologist, and this initial story and the subsequent tales we have planned are based in large part on his work.

In addition to the story, we added an afterword by Loyd (available at RaneyAndDay.com) that goes into detail about the various paranormal topics covered in the novel. (warning: spoilers!) And Arnold included an author's note explaining the evolution of the story.

Arnold and Loyd had originally conceived the idea and I joined the project sometime later. Although the script received a lot of praise and interest, ultimately it wasn't produced for reasons Loyd and Arnold explain in the afterword and author's note, but I always felt it was a story worth sharing. So, I asked them if they'd be willing to collaborate once again on a book version of Raney and Daye, potentially a series of novels, they were as excited as I was to resurrect Nate Raney and Jennifer Daye and give them new life. It was like reconnecting with old friends you hadn't seen for years. We added a few characters and some additional elements to the story and have been rewarded with fantastic reviews. 

The next book in the series, After Life, is set to be released this spring. Make sure to subscribe to our email list for the latest news. And check out Loyd's non-fiction books covering an assortment of paranormal topics, and share Arnold's stories of E.S. Pete with a child in your life.